New Media: Excited About Being Excited

Michael Hedges June 30, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Slice by slice, media consumption is a battlefield. Advantage goes the strongest, most savvy and fleetest afoot. How that’s applied makes a difference but, sometimes, a new trick or two changes the landscape.

Public broadcasters have applied their competitive advantages successfully in holding off commercial broadcasters and new media, says a report from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Public radio audience shares, in aggregate, haven’t budged much, roughly 37% across Europe since 2008. EBU member broadcasters in 29 countries supplied data for the report - Public Radio and New Media Platforms 2011. (See EBU press release here) The full report is available to EBU member broadcasters only with an executive summary available to all.

As summarized, the EBU report tells, with some candor, of the competitive challenges for public broadcasters in the never-ending quest for relevance and a stable funding source. Many public radio broadcasters have experienced a drop-off in time spent listening because those darned listeners, particularly those under age 30, are spending more time with anything online. And once they get smartphones, it’s just terrible. From Facebook to FarmVille, minutes and hours just fly by.

Or, maybe, not so terrible. Public radio broadcasters, generally the larger and better financed, were new media and social media early adopters. They have live streaming, catch-up streaming, podcasts, RSS feeds, smartphone apps and blogs, not to forget Facebook pages and no end to Tweeting. Public radio broadcasters have set up entire units to exploit the expanding realm of new media while commercial broadcasters waited for revenue streams.

The result has been that, according to the EBU report, “these new platforms seem to have contributed to halting the overall decline in weekly reach in these countries over the past five years.” Giving radio users – they’re not just listeners any more – something trendy and novel has certain competitive advantage. Commercial radio broadcasters lagged behind then turned their energies to complaining about public broadcasters investment.

The report summary gives only fleeting attention to the digital radio platform commonly referred to as DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting). Public broadcasters were early adopters in that technology, hopeful that a distinct platform would create competitive advantage. It hasn’t worked out so well. Only in the UK and Denmark has DAB had marked impact, though limited, and Denmark’s government, which calls the tune for the public broadcaster, has rolled back the DAB experiment. Analogue radio broadcasting in the UK hasn’t been diminished by the DAB platform, finds the EBU report.

Market leaders always set the competitive agenda in any sector, media being an excellent example. BBC radio channels, without argument, rule the UK market by more than simple weight. They are very good at what they do. That forces commercial broadcasters to rise to a certain performance level or, well, vanish. It’s true in Switzerland, Scandinavia and, to a certain extent, Germany. The top rated private sector radio channels in Italy, France, Spain and Poland are remarkably similar in program context to top public channels.

Customer relationship has long been touted as the Holy Grail of brand building. It’s part science and part art. If some level of interaction between a brand and a customer is essential, then interactive media should be a game changer. Public radio broadcasters take interactivity very seriously.

Common wisdom among radio broadcasters holds that listeners fall into two categories: active and passive. Active listeners are a station’s true fans. They’ve always called on the phone, played the games and told their friends where to listen. There are always more passive listeners, those not inclined to engage. Many passive listeners are music fans and barely know the station’s name. Pure music fans started to disappear when the iPod arrived, now they have Spotify and last.fm.

The radio market changes as its customers change. But have the customers really changed that much since the rise of new media? Interactive television – giving viewers a choice of camera angle in sports programs, for example – never caught on. Just having the radio on, without imploring listeners to do something, might resonate, too.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Digital Transitions

Media's transition from analogue to digital has opened opportunities and unleashed challenges beyond the imagination. Media is connected and mobile yet fettered by old rules and new economics. Broadcasters and publishers borrow from the past while inventing whole new services. This ftm Knowledge file explores the changes. 88 pages PDF (March 2012)

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Public Broadcasting - Arguments, Battles and Changes

Public broadcasters have - mostly - thrown off the musty stain of State broadcasting. And audiences for public channels are growing. But arguments and battles with politicians, publishers and commercial broadcasters threatens more changes. The ftm Knowledge file examines all sides. 64 pages PDF (January 2010)

Order here